Dr. Joseph Manning

Biography

Manning specializes in historical focus on Hellenistic history with a particular emphasis on legal and economic history of Ptolemaic Egypt. His research interests include governance, state reforms, legal institutions, market formations, and the impact of new economic institutions such as coinage and banking on traditional socio-economic patterns of the ancient world. Manning has a deep concern for Papyrology and the interpretation of ancient sources, applying historical social sciences, particularly Economic Sociology and economic legal theory. For the past ten years, his research has concentrated on the impact of historical climate change on premodern societies. He is the Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation project titled 'Volcanism, Hydrology and Social Conflict: Lessons from Hellenistic and Roman-Era Egypt and Mesopotamia'. Manning has published four monographs and has edited works on ancient economies and their structures. His current research intersects paleoclimatology and economic history, especially around the impacts of explosive volcanic eruptions in the Nile watershed, with plans to extend studies through Late Antiquity. Before joining Yale, Manning taught for 12 years at Stanford University and previously at Princeton University. He holds a B.A. from Ohio State and an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Research Interests